Sewing for the home
The completed set
Finding a decent set of sheets at a price that does not require a bank loan turns out to be quite a challenge. My DH and I are reaching a certain age when we tend to run a little warmer than we did in our youth (okay only when sleeping). Sweating while sleeping is never fun. I decided since I could not find a set of sheets I was willing to pay an outrageous price for (only to find them horrible after purchase) I would sew my own.
If you are going to sew a set of sheets you first need to measure your mattress. This was not quite the acrobatic feat I had envisioned and was actually quite easy. Now if I am going to sew my own sheet set you can rest assured there will not be a seam running straight down the middle of the sheet to join pieces of fabric. They do sell extra wide width fabric, check in a quilt shop. Quilters use wide widths to make quilt backings. Once you have recovered from the price per yard shock pick yourself up and begin the search elsewhere. There are many places online that sell this class of fabric. I found some locally at a store and they had a 40% discount price.
It turns out that teaching kindergarten for many years has affected my ability to do big math (okay let’s be honest, that was never my best quality). After the measuring and figuring was done I believed 8 yards should suit my purposes best. I had the sales associate cut two pieces of fabric each in a 4 yard cut. I bought 100% white cotton. If you are making your own sheets buy nice fabric. Scratchy, off grain fabric I can easily purchase in ready made sheets.
Spoiler alert - turns out I really only need a little under 3 yards per sheet. Extra fabric is never a tragedy at my house. I am using the extra to make pillowcases. Also, hello it is white cotton - what sewist worth her good name cannot find a use for that in her studio.
I conquered the fitted sheet first since surprise more math was involved. I had to measure the depth of the mattress and add 3 inches. This turned out to be 13 inches total. On each corner I cut a 13x13 square. Placed the cut edges together and serged them to make the box corners. The elastic I used was 1/4” in width and I cut 4 pieces in 10” lengths. I only placed elastic on the corners not all the way around the entire fitted sheet. I thought I should try just placing elastic on the corners to save money, time and effort. Also the sides of my sheets were long enough so I could tuck them under the sides of the mattress. One of the complaints concerning our now old sheet set was that the sides keep coming up and there were wrinkles all throughout the fitted sheet. I now realize this is because the box corners were not deep enough for our average sized mattress.
There was some finagling that occurred and excess fabric was cut. In the end the fitted sheet works and stays on the mattress the entire night. There will no picture of the not instagram worthy box corners on one side. Maybe on my next set.
A flat sheet is much easier to make. I serged the cut ended, folded sides for a hem and used the cover stitch machine to finish off the project.
We have been using the sheets for at least a week and we love them. My DH tells me they feel like good quality hotel sheets. There will probably be at least another set made before too long.
